Sweeter Than Cake
by Reyairia
Summary: The meganium knew he was going to get an awesome treat made from his favorite berries, but with that ratty typhlosion around even the sweetest berries would taste sour. Silver/Kotone
1. Chapter One

It must have been hard on him to say the least.

The time traveling event had ended, and Ethan had already left to go back to his waiting parents. Kotone had been quiet and pensive, yet quick to brush aside her childhood friend's worries. "I'm fine," she did her best to fake a smile. Oh, how she hated lying , especially to him. "I've just got some things to think about. Just go home, I'm sure your mom's wondering where you are." Ethan wasn't convinced, he knew Kotone too well to be fooled, but he trusted her to tell him once she was ready to.

The sky was beginning to darken, but Kotone didn't feel like taking the trip to the pokecenter. She had healed her pokemon with spare potions she had in her bag, too lost in her thoughts to walk. If she tried, she would have probably walked into a tree. Instead, the young champion simply sat in the same spot she had gone and arrived from the trip, pulling out grass that was too long or too short. Kotone smiled and thought about the stray hairs which popped from her rival's head in the same way the grass did. She looked over to her meganium, who was on guard for any wild pokemon which could be a threat to his trainer. A tiny caterpie had cluelessly made its way to his neck and had started to nibble at his petals. The larger pokemon was obviously annoyed, but did not have the heart to shake it off.

The girl mouthed her rival's name, Giovanni's son, Silver. Then, she said it out loud. The meganium's antennae twitched and let out a barely audible growl, associating that word with a certain Typhlosion who got on his nerves far more than a shameless caterpie. Kotone sighed and stopped pulling the grass to look at the sky visible between the leaves of the trees. She thought of the rivalry the Viridian gym leader had with the Kanto champion and how he had talked about him. The trainer thought if maybe years down the road Silver would speak of her in the same way. Kotone frowned. Red and Blue were childhood friends and rivals. The way Blue spoke about Red was bitter, yet at the same time you could tell he was proud of his town for bringing the champion to Kanto. He was proud of himself for being the rival of such a famous trainer, but most of all, proud of his friend. The redheaded boy was certainly no childhood friend of hers, and the more she found out about him, the more she realized that she didn't know anything about him at all. Yes, she could try to picture what the life of Giovanni's son was probably like, she knew why Silver had hated feeling weak, she knew why his view on pokemon was so twisted, she knew why he was so hard on himself. But it didn't feel like enough, not nearly enough, for her. He was no Blue to her Red. In fact, now that she thought about it, he probably never had any friends at all. The girl sighed, and she felt her heart clench as she thought back to when she saw her rival training alone in the dark of Dragon's Den and out of breath but not out of pride. She remembered the last time she saw him too; a sunny Wednesday afternoon where he challenged her to a battle before her rematch with the Elite Four and Lance. He was cocky as he did so, as expected, but once she managed to defeat him, he… changed. Silver even apologized and told her to make sure she checked in with the pokecenter before running off, never looking straight at her. Probably out of shame, Kotone thought. She clenched her fists and wondered if she regretted, if she _should _regret, being so casual and laid back about defeating him now that she knew all his motivations and past. _No_, she concluded, letting him win would only have made things worse and her rival would have continued with his backwards attitude on pokemon. Lecturing him about it did nothing, the only thing that was able to open his eyes, though gradually, was consistent defeat.

Kotone sighed once again. Silver was definitely no longer the same boy who had broken into the Professor's lab to steal pokemon. Now that she understood him better, now that she knew just a little bit more about him, and now that he was no longer that same person maybe she should give him a second chance. It must be lonely training alone in Dragon's Den and maybe, just maybe, he could bite down on his pride just enough to let her become a friend. No, she _must_ do it. No one deserves to be by themselves like that, not even Giovanni's son. It was settled, the first thing Kotone would do tomorrow is go to Dragon's Den to meet her rival. The girl once again muttered the boy's name, which was masked by Meganium's sudden growl at an oncoming light.

"What exactly are _you_ doing here?"

Kotone's heart jumped knowing exactly who that voice belonged to. The boy who had occupied her thoughts for the past few hours approached her, accompanied by the typhlosion lighting up his unmistakable face. She noticed that, like at winner's path, Silver once again avoided looking at her directly in the face.

"I wasn't expecting you here. What are you doing in the forest at this time?"

Her rival groaned, and scratched the back of his head. "I could ask you the same thing, I happen to train here on Saturday nights. You're the intruder here." Kotone motioned as to invite him to sit next to her and to to her surprise, he actually did so.

"So late at night?" Even though right next to Kotone, Silver insisted on not looking at her. In fact, he seemed even less eager to do so.

"It's not as hot, the stronger pokemon come out, and I usually avoid running into annoying people like you. Why aren't you at a pokemon center? You came here to make fun of me didn't you?"

"Hmph. Don't judge me by your standards, Silver." Kotone couldn't help but feel offended every time her rival brought up the crazy idea that she would make fun of anybody, but at least now she understood his paranoia and fear. "I've been nothing but polite to you, in case you never noticed. I'm not like you, or Team Rocket, or… Giovanni." The girl immediately regretted bringing her rival's father up. If things weren't awkward and uncomfortable already, it just got a lot worse. Silver's fists clenched, and his eyes narrowed. Kotone gulped, not knowing if she had doomed any hopes for a friendly rivalry she had so set out to do. Seconds felt like hours when the redheaded boy finally spoke again.

"So you… How did you find out…?"

Silver had no idea how the girl beside him managed to figure out his background. She would have had to have done quite the research to even know Giovanni had a son, and Arceus knew how she found out it was him. The whole fiasco had been kept in hush-hush by the police, ashamed that the leader of Team Rocket was under their noses from the start and even more so when he had gotten away. The boy's own shame swelled inside of him and he cursed inwardly. _Damnit_, his rival was the very last person Silver wanted to associate him with Team Rocket. If she didn't respect him at all before, she definitely didn't do now.

"It's a long story, but I didn't stalk you or anything if that's what you're worried about. I won't tell anyone either." Kotone called her meganium. The pokemon had been giving the dirtiest glares to her rival's typhlosion and definitely looked ready for a battle. He grudgingly trotted to his trainer with the caterpie comically clinging to his petals for dear life. Meanwhile, his very own rival let out of a series of grunts which suspiciously sounded like "stupid hippie."

The girl's assurance pissed him off. Did she pity him? Was he that pathetic? Yes, what she said was true. Silver had gone throughout all his life either looked up at as the leader's son, or looked down at as a misguided thief. And ever since he became estranged from his father and mother all anybody felt for him was fear, disgust or pity. The girl beside him was the only one who actually saw him and treated him as an equal and he hated it. He hated how she never held back when they battled even though it was clear who would win. He hated that hers was the first true smile he had been given in years. He hated that she actually called him by his name instead of "you" or "red head boy" or "thief" or any variety of swear words. He hated that he had come to admire her. He hated that she had crushed all his hopes of defeating Team Rocket and becoming the pokemon champion and he couldn't even hate her for it. But most of all, he hated that what he looked forward to by defeating her was to impress her and how his heart pounded just thinking about it. The truth was that somewhere along the way, Silver had developed a crush on his rival. Of course, he was definitely not going to admit this out loud. The last thing he needed was to be humiliated _yet again_ and by something as pathetic and stupid as a crush. Not knowing what to do or how to react, the boy stood up and called his typhlosion, who had been making faces at his rival's pokemon for the last few minutes.

"I guess I should leave, since it's pretty clear I won't get any training done with _you_ around."

"Wait!"

Kotone had been quick to stand up and grab onto Silver's sleeve to stop him from running off yet again. "Hang on." This time, she wasn't going to let him do that so fast. Kotone felt herself blush, at the close distance she had realized just how much taller he was than her.

"Are you nuts? Let go!" What the heck did this girl want? A battle? But before Silver could snatch his arm away from her, she let go herself of his sleeve and…

Hugged him?

Apparently the pokemon were as surprised as the trainer was, as they had finally ceased to stop taunting each other in order to stare. The forest was surprisingly quiet, and the only thing that could be heard was the bug pokemons' persistent munching.

"Wh-wh-what the hell are you doing?" The boy could only be glad that the darkness was able to mask his face, which had gotten as red as his hair. Silver tried to push Kotone away from him, but she was surprisingly strong and it only got her to hug him tighter. It was only after a few seconds of hyperventilating was the boy finally gulped down his embarrassment and pride and decided to hug her back. Kotone was surprised at how tight his grip was on her. It was almost as if he was afraid of letting go. Eventually, however, he did.

Feeling ashamed of doing something so shameless, it was Kotone's turn to not be able to look at her rival in the face. "I just felt like you… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I apologize for interrupting your training too, so we'll leave you alone now." The girl turned around to leave. But Silver stopped her by grabbing on to her wrist, his grip as tight as his arms and spoke to her in a firm voice, but his usual mocking tone was gone.

"Don't go. There's something… there's something I… need to talk to you about."


	2. Chapter Two

Silver gritted his teeth. What the hell was he thinking? He looked into his crush's curiosity filled eyes for only a split second before looking away, but that was enough to make his heart bounce. What was the point of telling her about his crush? There was none. All it would do is make each interaction of theirs more awkward than it already was; Kotone wasn't the kind of spineless girl to crush on a guy who treated her like he had, and Silver was an idiot for thinking that she could. He would have to be… _nice_ to her more before he could even have a chance at winning her feelings. Should he ask her out on a date? The boy mentally kicked himself. No, that'd be too obvious and he doubted she would agree to it. Then it clicked in his head. _I'm an idiot_, pokemon is how they met, obviously that could be a gateway too.

"What is it, Silver?"

"We should… battle more. Give me your pokegear."

Kotone sighed in relief. About time he'd ask! The trainer had always wondered if her rival would ever offer to give her his number, as he would always run off before she had the chance to ask. Silver quickly let go of the girl's hand, muttering something Kotone couldn't make out. Ignoring him, Kotone shuffled blindly through her bag in the dark until she recognized the cubic steel of the pokegear. "Here it is." The trainer daintily handed the gadget to her rival. The redheaded boy grasped it firmly, squinting his eyes at the bright light it emitted before noting down his number. He handed it back by stretching his arm and looking away, not saying a word. _Hmph_. Kotone knew it was typical of him, but he didn't have to behave like her pokegear was a dead rat or something. She closed it shut before putting it back in her bag.

"I guess I should really go now…"

"Hang on. You'll get lost, Typhlosion and I can accompany you to the pokecenter."

Kotone blinked, and then giggled. "You dummy. I have my own pokemon, remember?" Silver groaned under his breath, why did he always embarrass himself in front of her? Of course she had a fire pokemon around.  
"Come back, Meganium." The grass pokemon stuck its tongue out one last time at the Typhlosion before being recalled. Kotone grabbed at one of her other pokeballs before throwing it up in the air. "Charizard!" How could Silver forget Kotone's rare black charizard? He couldn't help but admire it even though it decimated his team. The girl hopped on the black pokemon, which then spread its wings preparing for flight. "Thanks for the offer though, I'll call you sometime this week!"

"Al… alright." Silver looked down, unable to face the Johto champion. While Kotone had become the strongest trainer since Red from Pallet Town, he had wasted his time being cocky and cruel. It would take a long time to catch up to her, if he ever did. The red headed boy managed to put his hand up and wave, only looking up for a split second. He saw his crush smile and wave back and had to look away to hide the blush from his face. After a strong gust of wind, Kotone was gone and everything went back to being silent, the only thing that could be heard was the quiet whimper of the tiny caterpie that had been left behind, which was now being poked by the curious typhlosion. Noticing this, the redhead walked over to it, and kneeled down. He chuckled slightly, not too long ago he would have completely ignored the pathetic pokemon, but not anymore.

"Do you want to see your friend again?"

Almost as if to understand him, the caterpie spun around in a circle and jumped as if to say yes. Meanwhile, Typhlosion rolled his eyes. The pokemon always knew that his trainer had a habit of behaving strangely around that other specific human, but he couldn't understand why they couldn't just make an egg and get over it. But of course not, instead he had to stall around and wait for something to happen and obtain useless pokemon. Humans were so confusing and complicated. Typhlosion snorted and looked away, not being able to stand his trainer behaving the way he did.

"All right, if that's what you want." Silver reached into his pocket for a spare ultraball he had been carrying around and lightly tapped the caterpie on the nose with it. "It might be uncomfortable at first but…"


	3. Chapter Three

Typhlosion grunted and nudged Silver. The pokemon was getting bored out of his mind as his trainer had spent the last _half hour_ staring at the metallic trinket and the other humans were beginning to stare. Of course, his trainer's unusual red hair always drew a decent amount of attention anywhere, but there was something suspicious about an intimidating young man staring at a stupid device for so long. The fire pokemon grunted at his trainer once again, trying to get his attention. Silver had been training him and his comrades extra hard the last week so they could be ready to face Flower Power and the Nincompoops but now he was worried that his trainer wouldn't have the guts to even arrange a rematch. Typhlosion let out a soft growl. This was starting to get on his nerves and it didn't help he was hungry enough to eat a wailord. After a few more ignored nudges and growls, the pokemon gave up and decided to take a much needed nap next to the occupied bench. He and his trainer had come to the National Park to relax, after all. The pokemon grumbled, believing that the redhead's behavior was absolutely ridiculous.

Silver was thinking the same thing.

The boy sighed, being one push of a button from the hardest phone call in his life. The name Kotone, along with a number, was printed on the pokegear's screen just begging to be called. Silver had just spent the last half an hour trying to figure out what to say as to not make a fool out of himself yet again. The trainer took one last deep breath before finally pressing the button and holding it to his ear. With each ring the gear made, Silver felt like his heart's thumping doubled in speed. It only got worse when the girl in question finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"K-k-kotone?"

"Hi! Silver, is that you?" The boy brushed off Kotone's happy change in voice tone as his imagination. "I thought you'd never call! In fact, I was thinking about calling you later today myself. I'm guessing you want to battle, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

"Hm, well… I'm a bit busy right now."

"O-oh…" Silver couldn't stop himself from showing his disappointment in his voice. He groaned at his own stupidity for doing so, and face-palmed. Now she was going to think he was some sort of obsessed weirdo.

Kotone giggled. "Ah, sorry, I know how impatient you can be, Silver. Well, if you're really feeling up to it and you don't mind waiting a bit you can come visit me in New Bark Town. My house is the one on the right of Professor Elm's laboratory. Or… is this a bit too informal for you?"

"N-no… not at all. I'll be there in a couple of hours. That's fine, right?"

"Awesome! I'll see you then, later!"

_Click… …. …_

The pokegear trembled in Silver's hand. His heart had skipped a beat when Kotone had actually mentioned inviting him to her house, and it was still beating really hard from the ordeal. The young trainer shook any wrong thoughts from his head. No… it was just going to be a friendly visit. Her parents would probably be there anyway… Silver covered his now tomato-red face with his hand as he noticed the stares. _Crap_, was there no end to his public embarrassment? Anyway, he had to get to New Bark Town as soon as possible. Nudging the fire pokemon slightly with his toe, the redheaded trainer got up. However, Typhlosion wasn't exactly happy about his nap being interrupted. The pokemon grumbled and turned around to face away from his trainer. _Damnit_, he was having such a nice dream with all those pretty flareons too, why did everything have to happen at the most inopportune moments?

"Come on, Typhlosion." Silver nudged his pokemon again, a bit harder this time. "This is no time to be taking a nap. We have to go." The pokemon growled and kept ignoring his trainer. _It wasn't time either for you to be staring at your dumb device like a stupid psyduck either_. The now just as irritated trainer then gave up. Maybe he had gone a bit overboard with the whole "believing in your pokemon" thing and now they had gotten just a bit too spoiled. Or maybe Typhlosion was just a little too much like his trainer. Silver sighed in frustration. "All right, if you're not going to cooperate you're going back in the ball." Said pokemon simply grunted in apathy before returning to the capsule. At least he would have some peace for a while inside it instead of having to put up with his trainer's recent behavior.

It was quite the little corner between Professor Elm's lab and the mailbox. Silver took a deep sigh. There wasn't anything to worry about; the professor had already sorted everything out with the police when he had come to return Typhlosion. Yet, he felt awkward in New Bark Town, his past behavior still hovering over that small spot where everything started. The boy looked over at the pokemon he had stolen on that fateful day, which was now grumbling at the windy weather that always seemed occupy the town. Silver rolled his eyes at the Typhlosion. Was this pokemon _ever_ in a good mood? Not that he was one to criticize… The trainer determinedly glanced at the house where he was being waited for before slowly making his way to the painted red door. It was definitely bigger than most of the other houses in the town, but nowhere near the size of the roomy mansion he had occupied as a child, which had no intention of welcoming him back. The redheaded boy stretched his arm to knock the door and…

_**Thock!**_

_What the…?_

The taller trainer glanced down at a boy who had just bumped into him, hard enough to kilt him off balance. Instead, it was the other boy who had fallen square on his butt, who then muttered an apology before looking up at the intimidating redhead. "Oh!" Gold got up, recognizing who it was. "It's you!" Silver, however, was pretty sure he had never seen this weirdo in his life and was glad he hadn't. Just knowing that he had barged out of _Kotone's _house was already enough to hate this guy.

"Do I _know_ you?"

Gold muttered under his breath, before sighing. The redhead was obviously not the calm and relaxed type, and he could already feel the heat emanating from the fellow trainer's typhlosion, which had sprouted flames from its back in preparation for battle. It was a pokemon Gold definitely did not want to mess with. Plus, Gold had promised Kotone not to say anything about the time traveling with Celebi, especially not to Giovanni's son. Not that he'd believe him, anyway.

"Uh… sorry, I was confusing you with someone else. Sorry about bumping into you. See you!"

And with that, the strange boy was gone. Silver's bad mood, however, was most definitely not. No longer caring about manners, the redhead slammed the door open in front of him. "Who the hell was _that_?" Silver growled. If that imbecile so much touched a hair of Kotone's head not even a tyranitar would be able to defend him from the redhead's wrath. Silver looked around the living room and to the kitchen at the far right corner. It was modest, but tidy. The girl in question was behind the kitchen counter, and upon hearing the loud slam, knew who arrived. Who else had the habit of rudely barging into other people's property? Not that she was one to criticize, either. Kotone spun around to face her guest.

"For your information, Gold happens to be a very good friend of mine. So you better be nice to him, ok?" The girl held up a whisk as to threaten Silver with it. Heck, she might as well be. "He was nice enough to bring me Mago berries for Meganium's cake."

"Mgii!" Kotone's pokemon cried out in unison. The meganium knew he was going to get an awesome treat made from his favorite berries, but with that ratty typhlosion around even the sweetest berries would taste sour. The grass type pokemon could only hope that Typhlosion would piss off before his face would ruin his day any more than it already did. Said Typhlosion must have thought otherwise, as he snickered before helping himself to rub the smoky scent of his fur on Kotone's – _his_ - furniture. _Son of a…_

Silver ignored his pokemon's awful behavior. He wasn't exactly happy that Kotone had defended that imbecile, much less that he could be considered competition, but making a cake for your pokemon? It seemed like a completely ridiculous idea to him. Still, Kotone must be doing _something_ right with what being the Johto champion and all. Plus, she did look really cute in that apron. The redhead sighed, and looked at his typhlosion before whispering to him.

"I swear if I see _one_ tiny rip in Kotone's furniture by the time I'm done with you the only move you will remember is Perish song. Got it?"

The pokemon nodded in fear, knowing full well what his trainer was capable of by experience. This time, it was Meganium's turn to snicker. Maybe the rat's trainer wasn't so bad after all.

"A cake?"

Kotone sighed. Why couldn't Silver be nice to her _and_ look her in the eyes at the same time? Was it so hard?

"Yes, a cake. It's Meganium's makeshift birthday. Don't you remember? It was today when we both obtained our pokemon."


	4. Chapter Four

Typhlosion actually could go for some berries right now. He usually had to limit himself to things like HP Up and generic pokemon food sold at pokemarts, but once in a while he would nibble on some he had found while his trainer wasn't looking. Of course, he had sniffed them in the air as soon as he had entered the house, recognizing the berries' fresh scent, but was disappointed upon realizing that they were the wrong kind of berry. The pokemon had snorted, _How typical of Mr. Perfume to like the sweet ones._ While Typhlosion didn't mind sweet berries, he was left craving the spicy kind. _Hm_, he thought, the large pokemon didn't quite have the cute charm he used to as a cyndaquil, but maybe he still had enough left to win over some favors from the female trainer…

Silver spun around to face his rival. _A year, huh?_ He hadn't exactly been keeping track of the time that had gone by, and whenever he thought about it everything was just "some months ago." It seemed that eventually, over their two skirmishes, it had been an entire year since Kotone caught him behind Elm's mailbox, sulking and waiting for the right moment to steal a pokemon. Everything changed on that day, and now that he thought about it he realized that he had gotten quite far in, well, _everything_ in such short amount of time. Of course, it didn't compare to what Kotone had done. Finally, Silver broke up the eye contact as he felt himself blush.

"I guess… I've known you for a year now, r-right?"

The trainer internally face-palmed. Of course, the day he stole then cyndaquil was the same day he met her. Why did he have to be the idiot stating the obvious?

"Yeah, you're right!" Kotone only beamed a smile at him "Maybe I should make a cake too for both of us too." The girl returned to her previous task of getting all the materials needed to make her pastries, the noise of wooden cupboards opening and closing filling the first floor. "My mom went to visit my grandmother in Hoenn, that's why I'm stuck here house-sitting for a couple of days. Would you mind staying a while? Gold has to help his grandparents and it's really boring being in here alone. I mean… if you don't mind being around or anything. Now that I think about it, you probably have something to do." The girl had spoken the last part very softly in contrast to her previous chipper. This didn't really give Silver much of an option; He wasn't going to get much training today now was he? _I guess my battle with Claire can be done later._ Well, at least it was better than getting pummeled in battle as usual.

"No, I can stick around and… help out if you want I guess. J-just don't make me wear a stupid apron or anything."

Kotone grinned, clearly pleased. Silver's ability to be nice was clearly something that kept throwing her off guard, but she definitely could get used to it. She had been paying so much attention to the boy, expecting that he would chastise her and leave, she didn't notice Meganium's heavy growling and her rival's typhlosion pitifully crawling to her with the most pathetic look she had ever seen on a pokemon.

Meganium's growls grew louder with each step the typhlosion made. This was _not_ his day. First, the rat barges into _his_ house to mock him. Then, he had the gall to rub his _stink_ on everything. And to top it all, that shameless imbecile had the guts to pretend he was a victim of sorts and go all bug-eyed on his trainer? The only way Typhlosion could be any more of a douche was if his trainer had nicknamed him Chad. Fortunately, there was no way Kotone would fall for his manipulating little scams.

"Aw, you look so cute! Do you want some berries too? Tell me, which ones do you like?"

… Right?

Silver raised an eyebrow at his pokemon's unusual behavior. Since when did Typhlosion look that hungry? The trainer had fed him as soon as they had arrived at New Bark Town, so what the heck was he doing? "Hey, hey, stop pretending like you're malnourished or something, you spoilt fat bastard. Get back here."

Kotone frowned. "Don't call your pokemon bastards. Or spoilt, or fat."

"I wouldn't if that wasn't exactly what he was!"

Meganium only growled louder at the shameless fire pokemon. Maybe not exactly fat, but definitely a spoilt bastard. Typhlosion only flashed a grin at its fellow pokemon, before using fake whimpers and crocodile tears in an effort for a treat and maybe some more in the future if Shrubbery's trainer could convince his to be a bit more… _lenient_. Meganium glared daggers at the other pokemon; he hated that Typhlosion had to ruin _his_ day and probably the rest of his _month_ for the sake of something as stupid as... Heck, who knew what the other pokemon wanted but it was pissing him off majorly. Kotone simply lectured him about Meganium's behavior, but fortunately in the end decided to ignore the typhlosion and get back to her original task. "You can share with Meganium, I'm sure he'll be happy to!" That was clearly a response neither of the pokemon liked, and they quickly huffed at each other. Defeated, Typhlosion grumbled, and reluctantly trotted back to the living room where he found a warm spot under the window where the sun shone through and promptly laid down. _Good Riddance._ This gave just a little bit more space for Silver to squeeze in, as Kotone's kitchen wasn't exactly big enough for two people and two large pokemon. Unfortunately for him, Meganium wasn't exactly budging and simply glared at the redheaded trainer as if to say he wouldn't be able to get rid of him anytime soon. _Is everything and everyone working against me?_

"I… never realized you liked to bake so much."

Kotone was too busy spraying the pan to look up. Silver blushed slightly, the girl had the same expression whenever they had a pokemon battle. She looked determined, but not overconfident. It was an expression that always sharply contrasted his cocky yet insecure attitude, which had always bugged Silver at first – just like everything else about her, but ultimately made his crush grow stronger.

"Well, there's only so much you can do when you're a pokemon trainer cooped up in a house. Besides, there's good reason behind it. My mom and I used to make them all the time when I was little and we were bored. Haven't you ever done something like that with your mom? Here, wash the berries, won't you?" Kotone didn't want to probe too much into Silver's childhood, knowing who exactly his family was, but she thought it'd be a harmless enough question.

It wasn't; her rival's expression changed instantly.

A wave of vile memories filled Silver's head as a scowl drew itself on his face. It was a long time ago that his mother had died, and he was just a little child, but he remembered it pretty well. Too well.

"My mom passed away when I was a kid, and we never baked or anything like that… No soap or anything, right?"

The redhead quickly turned around to face the sink, and opened up the water tap to do the task on hand. Silver had never really set foot in a kitchen to do anything but get a quick snack, as he grew up with chefs to cook for him, and in the last year he always had made enough money from winning battles that he could afford to buy precooked food. It was safe to say that the boy had never done anything in a kitchen in his life, and couldn't tell a spatula from a pan. Hopefully this wasn't disaster waiting to happen, like everything else in his life seemed to have become.

"That's… awful." Great, did he just get her down? "And here I was thinking your mom was that pretty rocket executive."

"Sister." Silver grunted, not wanting the subject of conversation to even veer near Team Rocket.

"Ah… that explains it. And no, don't put any soap! Just make sure they're rinsed properly and stuff."

Seriously, wash fruit with soap? Had Kotone's rival been living under a sheltered rock all his life? If he would have done that, the berries would have been totally ruined for consumption. She couldn't think much about it though, those thoughts going back to Silver's mom. With a mother figure gone and a dad like… well, like the team rocket boss, it was pretty clear why the boy had become an abusive and arrogant trainer. In a way, it kind of reminded her of her own missing dad. Kotone sighed through her nose. Maybe the two weren't so different after all.

"O-okay…" Silver tilted the plastic colander slightly under the falling water, not knowing any better, and his thoughts started to wander. With the two having a house all to themselves, Kotone in an apron and him helping out the boy was starting to feel like… _No!_ Silver shook his head slightly. He was getting way too ahead of himself, however, he was unable to stop the blush from creeping up into his face, and it only got worse when Kotone decided to help him out. "Here… like this…" Silver's crush had gotten really close to him, enough to be able to reach into the colander and start shuffling the mago berries around. The boy was only glad that she was too busy concentrating on it to notice the red of his face. "Seriously Silver," Kotone giggled. "Have you ever even stepped into a kitchen before?" _Great_, Silver thought, was she making fun of him now?

"W-we had private chefs." Previously, Silver was not afraid to say he came from a wealthy family, but nothing was ever the same with Kotone. He only hoped that she wouldn't see him as the rich brat type, which to be honest, wasn't far from the truth at all. The redhead really had been a rich brat for most of his life, at least until he met her.

"I see, that explains it." Kotone felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier. It was clear that Giovanni must have had quite the money to be able to sustain and employ such a large organization like Team Rocket. Of course Silver must have grown up with servants and private cooks and all that fancy stuff. Kotone blushed lightly, feeling a bit self-conscious about her modest sized house for once. "Here..." She grabbed the red colander from her guest after giving him a smile. "I think they're rinsed enough now." The boy simply looked away and nodded slowly, much to Kotone's disappointment. Would it kill him to smile for once?

"Meg, I know you want your treat really badly, but can you please wait _outside_ of the kitchen?"

The grass pokemon grumbled. Why did he have to go but not Typhlosion's useless trainer? At least he was cute to look at. Offended, Meganium trotted out of the kichen and up the stairs to Kotone's room – far away from the obnoxious and ill behaved guests. Kotone put her hands on her hips as she watched her pokemon leave her sight. The trainer knew that Meganium was always cranky around Silver and his typhlosion, but now that Silver had become far more of a nicer person and less of a cocky rival Kotone didn't quite understand why her pokemon insisted on being overprotective.

"I don't understand… he's usually such a friendly pokemon. He's only this big of a grouch around you."

"I told you that Typhlosion is spoilt, cocky, and arrogant. It's rare for him to get along with other pokemon, so it's probably him." Silver huffed and crossed his arms.

_I guess old habits die harder on pokemon._ Kotone managed suppressed her giggle into a smile, and grabbed for the fridge now that there was a bit more room to breathe and less of tripping hazards. The girl spotted the butter and pulled it out before setting it on the counter. "You're going to have to wash your hands for the next part."

"R-right!"

It was odd to see her long time rival, who used to be completely cocky and confident about battles be totally clueless about something. In fact, it was almost… _cute_.


	5. Chapter Five

"Here." Kotone handed Silver the mixing bowl. "I need you to smush the flour and the butter together with your fingers until it starts to feel like bread crumbs. You know what I mean, right?"

Silver grabbed the bowl carefully, before nodding to his partner. The trainer started to wonder what had happened for him to end up doing something as girly as baking. Hadn't he come here for a battle?

"You can do that, right?" Kotone gave him a smile which answered his doubts. That darn blush came rushing back to his face.

"O-of course I can!" Silver huffed, before turning away to put it back on the counter and began to concentrate on his job. That was typical of him, wasn't it? Always dignified with what he was doing, no matter what it was. Kotone giggled. Even though she was basically bossing him around and telling him what to do. The girl felt herself blush, and hoped Silver wouldn't get the wrong idea or anything.

"You know… I know you probably don't want to, but… if you ever need someone to talk to about things I'm here." Kotone noticed the boy had stopped to look at her. The girl hesitated; she was so used to Silver being a jerk and outright mean to her, why did she suddenly feel nervous? "It probably doesn't mean much to you, but I lost my father too. He's been missing for years." It wasn't a topic Kotone liked to talk about, and in truth it didn't help her nervousness to actually mention it. Although, in truth, there really wasn't much to talk about; her dad had mysteriously vanished during his own pokemon career when she was eight, the police never finding a corpse.

_Great_, how was he supposed to respond to that? Silver definitely could tell this was a hard subject for Kotone, he had never seen her so… _vulnerable_. The usually upbeat girl was looking down at her feet, quiet and pensive. The boy didn't want to sound like a complete imbecile and make things worse, but he couldn't be insensitive either. Silver went back to pressing the flour and butter together like he was instructed to do, hoping maybe he'd find the appropriate answer within it.

"Look… I'm willing to listen t-to you too. And I won't make fun of you or anything." Silver knew that it'd be unlikely Kotone would trust him as opposed to her mom or… _Gold_, with the past year of his behavior directed at her. Hell, it was a miracle just by itself that she was still willing to be friends with him.

"Promise?"

"P-promise."

"Thanks!" Kotone gleamed. It was amazing how quick she had been restored to her former self. "It's dumb, I know, I've had years to get over it. Hm? Let me see… oh, I think that's good enough, let me take care of things for now. Thanks for helping out." The girl grabbed the whisk she had been holding earlier in the day and started to stir the mixture in the bowl slightly, before opening the cupboard containing the sugar and ground almonds. Kotone frowned. She hadn't realized they were both so out of her reach.

"Oh, why did mom have to put them all the way up there?" Even on her tip-toes and her arm stretched towards them Kotone couldn't reach them. "Crud!"

It was a surprisingly endearing sight. Silver was pretty tall for his age and everyone else that wasn't always seemed short to him, so he never really paid attention to just how short Kotone was. Drying his hands with the towel after washing them for the second time, the redhead calmly walked over to the girl he crushed on, and grabbed the bag of ground almonds along with the bag of sugar with ease.

"Here."

Kotone blushed lightly. "Thanks again." Silver just huffed, and looked down at the shorter trainer.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, can you get me the milk and two eggs from the fridge?" The redhead nodded and did as he was told. Now that Silver had noticed it, things had gotten much quieter since Typhlosion had taken a nap and Meganium had left the room. It was odd being with Kotone and not conversing about pokemon or battling. He wondered if he should do anything to somewhat block the orders she kept throwing at him. The boy frowned; making conversation was never his strong point.

Kotone, meanwhile, poured the now mixture of various ingredients into the cake pan she had prepared earlier. "All done… well, kinda. It's still going to take a while in the oven." The girl leaned down, opened the oven door, and slid the clunky cake pan inside. She sighed, before reaching behind her to untie her apron. "Well, that's it for now, it's gonna be a while before its ready." Kotone looked over to her fellow trainer, before turning around and placing the garment on the countertop. "Now if I remember correctly, you wanted to battle, right?" She had the same determined look on her face from earlier.

"Y-yeah!"

* * *

Silver lost, obviously.

Fortunately he had several full restores ready knowing full well that New Bark Town had no pokecenter. Muttering under his breath regarding how ridiculous it was that the _champion's_ hometown was lacking of an adequate pokemon care facility, the redhead made himself comfortable on his rival's couch, a fully healthy butterfree perched on his shoulder, which was happy to be out of his pokeball. Silver's more notable pokemon was at his feet, obviously not in the best of moods after being defeated by his own rival once again. Grumbling, Typhlosion curled up to make himself look smaller, hoping that he would disappear from everyone's line of sight. This wasn't exactly met with success for the one hundred and seventy-five pound pokemon.

Kotone grabbed for the mittens before finally opening the oven to get the cake out. A heavenly aroma filled the room and Meganium was the first one to notice it. "Mghii!" _Arceus damnit give me that cake!_ The grass type was ready to stick his nose in when it came into contact with the hot pan. The meganium cried out, before retreating into whimpers.

"Oh, Meg! That's what you get for being so impatient! We need to wait for it to cool down, first!"

Typhlosion snickered at the seemingly cowardly opponent. Maybe he lost in a battle, but at least he could handle a little bit of heat or at least not sound like a complete imbecile. The meganium in question was too busy wallowing in his pain to come up with a retort. Kotone sighed, and placed the cake pan on the countertop before rummaging in her pocket for a rawst berry. Finding one, she presented her pokemon with it. "Here you go and quit complaining, you've handled tougher fires." Meganium just leered at his trainer and reluctantly ate the berry from her hand. Not knowing when the treat would _actually_ be ready and the pokemon's patience already thinned, Meganium retreated until called. Hopefully the shameless bastard wouldn't eat it all until then. Meanwhile, Kotone prepared the wire cooling rack but she still had to leave the cake in the pan for another ten minutes. To make use of time, she decided to ask Silver about something she suspected from their pokemon battle earlier on.

"That butterfree… it was that caterpie in Ilex Forest, right?"

"Wh-wha?" Silver jolted upright in his seat. As far as he knew, every caterpie looked exactly the same, how was Kotone able to tell that it was that specific caterpie, even if it had evolved? He swore that every time he met up with this girl there was a new surprise in store for him. The boy groaned under his breath while his butterfree flew around him in joy that he had been recognized. There was no use hiding that yes, it was the same pokemon.

"H-hey, you have two dark pokemon… and besides, I did have an extra spot in my party. I thought it could be useful." Feeling somewhat ashamed of himself for dropping down to the point that he was training a bug pokemon – and not even an intimidating one like scizor or pinsir – the male trainer looked away from the girl he had crushed on for months now.

"Oh, that's right. What happened to your sneasel?"

_Ugh_. Silver really did _not_ want to let Kotone know that Typhlosion hadn't been the only pokemon he had stolen, especially after all that had happened to get them in good… well, at least _better_ terms. Just like he had gone back to Professor Elm's lab to return said pokemon, he had also returned to Cianwood city to return the stolen sneasel. The boy knew he probably wasn't going to be so lucky with his other victim, so he just left Sneasel's pokeball in the mailbox along with a note containing an apology. Silver mentally chastised himself for not coming up with an excuse for its absence earlier.

"I… gave it away."

Kotone grinned. Unbeknownst to her rival, the girl knew exactly where that sneasel had come from and gathered he would have gone to return it just like he had offered to do so to the professor with Typhlosion. It was a… surprisingly _sweet_ thing of him to do, especially in comparison to his earlier behavior. Kotone looked down at the pan containing the now cooling cake as she felt herself blush. Why was she suddenly blushing so often? It was just _Silver_.

"That was very kind of you to do." Kotone decided to focus her thoughts on the cake to ward off her blushing. It should have been cool enough now so that it could just slide off the pan. Turning it around confirmed the girl's suspicions, as the cake easily fell off onto the metal rack with a soft _clang_.

"The cake still needs to cool down a bit more, but it should only take a couple of minutes."

Typhlosion's ears perked. Sure, he was never too much into sweet things, but the thought of eating Meganium's delicacy from underneath him struck him as sweet, sweet revenge, literally. And unlike flower boy, the fire pokemon could withstand the heat. Getting out of his previously curled position, the typhlosion was about to crawl under the table to prepare his move, when he spotted the cold, harsh glare of his trainer.

_I swear that if you do anything to upset Kotone I will dump you in the middle of the damn ocean and let the carvanhas eat you to pieces!_

Caught, confronted and definitely feeling threatened, Typhlosion had no choice but to obey his trainer and dismantle his awesome plans. The fire pokemon grunted loudly, why did he have to get stuck with the asshole trainer? Well, at least he could probably steal Meganium's share when neither trainer was looking.

"All right!" Kotone finished applying the pokemon-friendly icing on the cake before dumping the spatula in the sink. Grinning, the girl grabbed the wire rack with the cake on it and carried it onto the small dining table, joined by her meganium. Silver pushed the Typhlosion to join the duo with his foot, not bothering to get out of his comfortable seat. The pokemon was oddly willing, eagerly walking to his crush and her own pokemon, and even joined the meganium's side. _He's obviously planning something_. Silver made sure to keep an eye out and the pokeball ready in case the fat bastard tried anything. The meganium seemed to be sharing Silver's thoughts, and knowing full well said bastard, inched away from the fire pokemon. Not that it would really stop him.

First, Kotone made two normal sized slices on the cake. One was for her, and the other one would be for Silver. She sighed softly, hoping her rival would give it a try and not hate it. He was used to private chefs after all. The girl the proceeded to cut the remainder in three parts, Typhlosion and Meganium were large pokemon with proportionally sized stomachs and anything human sized would be comparable to only a cookie, and it would be unfair to give Butterfree, who had since then anxiously perched on the frame of the chair, a smaller size. She served the three large "slices" into two plates, and left the pokemon alone eat them, before turning to Silver with the human sized ones and walking over to him. This puzzled the redehad. Was he supposed to eat it? The boy had thought that berries were pokemon only.

"Here's yours."

"But… it's made of berries."

Kotone giggled. "Humans can eat berries too! But I think we'd only appreciate the sweet and spicy ones. It's probably nowhere near as good as a chef's though, so if you don't want to try it you don't have to…"

At the notice of the missing chipper in the latter part of Kotone's sentence, Silver quickly grabbed the fork and took a bite out of the prepared cake. The truth was that he wasn't expecting to really like it either, but he was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted.

"I-it's really good… Really."

Kotone grinned widely, before picking at her own slice of cake. "I'm glad you like it!"

Silver blushed hard, and once again looked away to hide it. In doing so he saw out the window to watch the first stars of the night twinkle in the sky. The male trainer swore under his breath. Why hadn't he noticed the time? His bag along with all his supplies were in Goldenrod city, and it would take at least a few hours to even fly there, not to mention it would be extremely cold to be at high altitudes during the dark. Silver knew he could trust his bag in the pokecenter, but it would have been extremely useful if there was one in this tiny town. The boy was _not_ looking forward to having to trek all the way to Cherrygrove in the dark.

"Damnit, I didn't notice what time it was. I have to go."

"No way." Kotone stopped him with words before allowing him to do just that. "It's too late to be travelling at all. You're staying here."


	6. Chapter Six

Typhlosion grinned, watching the two trainers dealing with one another. Now that they were distracted, he could do whatever the heck he wanted and if Meganium retaliated and made a mess he'd be the one to get the blame. The fire pokemon first finished his own, being a fast eater, and held up his paw to swipe at his rival's own share when he felt an awful tug at his ears.

"Rargh!"

Butterfree clamped on to his teammate and refused to let go, trying to pull him away from committing a misdeed. He did care about Typhlosion but he could still not understand why the fire pokemon insisted on behaving this way towards Meganium even after a week of constant interaction between the two. "Fwii!" the butterfree felt that holding off Typhlosion from his misbehavior was starting to become a losing battle, he didn't really like to do this outside of battle but the larger pokemon wasn't giving him any choice. Flapping his wings strongly, Butterfree released his sleeping powder.

_Crap_, it wasn't like they were really duking it out, he just wanted to eat Meganium's cake from underneath him, why did even his own teammate decide to pull this off? Why… why…

_99 sexy ninetales at the day care, 99 sexy ninetales… I don't care if she's old as my grandma… 98 sexy ninetales… zz…_

Meganium leered at the now sleeping Typhlosion. There was no way he would have let the fire pokemon steal his share, but he did nod in approval towards Butterfree since things were obviously much more peaceful when the cad was asleep and not being an enormous pain in the tailbase. Finally, the grass type would be able to enjoy the meal he had long been awaiting for, and typhlosion looked like he was enjoying his dream anyway.

"Wh-wha? Stay here?"

"You heard me, there isn't a pokecenter here in New Bark Town." Kotone remarked, before picking up another piece of cake with her fork and putting it into her mouth. "And it's too late to be trekking or flying to Cherrygrove, so calm down."

The redheaded boy groaned. Silver had gone for years not having to depend on anybody and he didn't want to start now, even if it was Kotone. _Ugh_, usually he didn't really care for doing night treks, but ever since he stole a pokemon from this town he had only come back once before. Needless to say, he didn't feel comfortable in New Bark Town at all, and was definitely not all that familiar with the town and the path to Cherrygrove. It wasn't outlandish to say he could get lost and what then? Kotone would probably have to haul his ass back anyway, not that she wouldn't do exactly that if he left right now. The boy sighed in defeat.

"Fine, are you going to want money? If so…"

Kotone giggled. Silver could be so predictable at times. Yet it was somewhat bittersweet. Did he really think of her that way? Why couldn't he trust her?

"I don't want any money; I have more than I care to do with, anyway. But now that you mention it…" The girl hesitated; she knew that this could be a make or break moment with her old time rival, and Silver could be so rash in his thinking it wouldn't surprise her if he made a dash for the door in just indignity. Kotone really did not want Silver to run off into the night like that when she was perfectly willing to lend him her room (she could just go to her mom's anyway) here. The pig tailed girl knew that Silver could perfectly take care of himself but why bother? She could tell he hadn't brought any repels and had used all the medicine he was carrying after his defeat.

"Tell me about Team Rocket."

"Wh-why would you want to know about _them_?"

"I think I have the right to know as the person who disbanded them in Johto." Kotone heard Silver groan predictably. He had made it pretty clear he had wanted to do that himself, albeit for different reasons. "Besides, we're friends right? You should be able to tell me these things, right?"

The boy put his hand to his forehead as if he had a migraine – though he might as well have one. Silver did trust Kotone, and in truth he was glad that she had called him a friend, but talking about Team Rocket and his family was something he really disliked delving into, but she was right. The boy sighed; Kotone was right, she did have a right to know, and there was no reason to keep it from her.

"Fine, but if you think that my father and I are some sort of misunderstood idiots with tragic pasts like some boyfriend in a novel you're going to be disappointed…"

* * *

The Old Chateau was haunted from the start, and it was made painfully obvious by the infestations of gastly and banette which had to be driven off every few months. Silver, Marie and their mother knew very well of the haunting. Ariana probably did too, but her own judgment was fully eclipsed by the admiration and blind fellowship for her father, who had dismissed any claims as "pure nonsense." But what did he know? Giovanni was only at home a week out of the month, and even then the phenomena strangely avoided him. "You should be glad you're still in Sinnoh," he'd always argue back. "We should be in Kanto, where I work. Maybe then you'd stop with all this ghost nonsense." Even though she hated the mansion, Sylvia did not want to leave her family behind and never had a choice but to swallow her pride and fears down and continue to tolerate the beastly mansion.

"_Mom?"_

"_It's okay, sweetie, mom's just… crying over dumb things. I'll be fine in a few minutes."_

Years later, Silver would look back to his mom's behavior and believe it to be the cause of chronic depression. He wondered if she was even on the verge of divorce with his father. It was almost common sense, really. Who could really stand being married to Giovanni after all?

However, the spirits didn't really bother the little boy so much. Maybe it was because he had lived in the house since he was born, he had grown up noticing the glowing balls of light, the crazy drops of temperature, the shadows who didn't belong to anybody and the butler nobody hired…

Even so, there was an uneasy feeling in the house which wasn't totally attributed to the haunting. Not all hauntings were threatening, and most of the spirits that did inhabit the old chateau were harmless. However, there was this awful presence that went far beyond leaving cupboards open and hiding keys. It was that shadow that filled rooms with a ghastly stench of rot and a shadow that seemed to slink away whenever you turned to face it. It shoved the servants around, ruined the cooks' food, pulled the maid's hair and… killed both Silver's mother and sister.

* * *

"Eh? A ghost killed your mom and your sister?"

Silver gritted his teeth, now said out loud the concept sounded absolutely ridiculous. Had Kotone told him the same about her dad he would have easily dismissed it as nonsense. The boy sighed, that would have made him just like his father, wouldn't it?

"I know, it sounds crazy but…"

"It's okay, I believe you."

_Huh?_ Silver looked at Kotone in surprise. Was she so naïve to believe him without question? Or did she have the uncanny ability to know who to trust? Now that he thought about it, that seemed to be the case since the start, didn't it?

"You're not the kind of person to tell lies like those." Kotone gave him a smile which told of sympathy on her part. It was true, Silver had always been a jerk, but he was never the lying manipulative type. Maybe that's why she could never bring herself to dislike him _– maybe_, she had thought, he did have some good in him after all. Much to her delight the trainer found out that she had been right all along. "Nor are you the kind of person who would easily believe them. I'm sure there's good reason for you to believe what you do… It must have been hard to lose your mom and your sister."

Silver blushed a deep red as his heart thudded in his chest. That was typical of Kotone, wasn't it? What's more he was starting to be affected by his crush even more than usual. The boy had never really had a crush on a girl before so he couldn't really tell, but it was really starting to spiral out of control. Gulping his feelings down, Silver continued.

"Mom was holding Marie at the top of the stairs…" Silver clenched his hands into fists. "I think you're smart enough to figure it out." He turned to look at the girl who had provoked the question in the first place who despite things, he was all too fond of. Kotone was facing him with such a concerned look in her eyes, but lacking any doubt or regret. It was almost funny how predictable they were, or maybe they had just been able to learn how to predict one another. That stupid crush was just messing things up with nervousness and doubts. Although it was odd… earlier in the day he would have had far more doubts but now things felt slightly more natural, even though he couldn't shake off the redness on his face which now rivaled the bright shade of his hair...

… And it didn't help that Kotone was now holding his hand tightly either.

"W-we moved to Viridian shortly afterwards and I haven't heard much of my mom's family since, last I knew my cousin became a gym leader like his dad. My father blamed my mom tripping on her eevee, and started with team rocket almost right after her and Marie's deaths. I don't know how the two are connected, if they are connected at all. Maybe mom was holding him back, but I don't know. I was just a kid when it all happened… I saw… how they looked…"

Kotone noticed how tightly Silver was holding her hand, as it was almost starting to hurt. She mouthed his name before returning the tight grip, but she felt powerless to comfort him.

"Why are you so strong?"

The trainer felt a tad surprised by a question that felt almost out of the blue. She looked into Silver's… red eyes? She had never noticed what color they were until now, had she? Kotone closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

"I love my pokemon and wanted the best for them. People always concentrate on the trainers, and it is the trainers that get all the acclaim, but it's really the pokemon who put in all the effort and that have all the potential. Trainers just bring that out.

"I know I can't compare it to what you went through, but I remember when my dad left my mom cried so much. It was horrible seeing her like that." Silver could swear that her previous smile had turned into a sad one. "I thought that maybe if I got far as a trainer and if maybe… just maybe if dad was still out there… he'd realize… he'd come back to mom." The girl lowered her eyes and Silver could no longer make out her expression, but he noticed a small tear trickling down her cheek and his eyes widened. The boy motioned at his flying pokemon, and the butterfree nodded in understanding. With a rapid flap of its wings, Butterfree went upstairs to search for a tissue box or a handkerchief. By this time Meganium had already noticed the distress his trainer was in and was nudging Kotone's knee slightly in comfort. His trainer scratched her pokemon's head as if to say she was fine, and continued.

"But I guess… he's really gone… isn't he? Maybe we just weren't good enough…" Kotone sobbed. "I'm sorry… you've had it so much worse, and here I am crying like an idiot." She turned to face him, and it was obvious she was trying hard to smile and hide her actual feelings. Silver sighed and slowly grabbed the girl's shoulder, pulling her toward him into an embrace.

"Don't worry about it, fathers are overrated anyway." The least the boy could do was comfort her for making her cry. It must have been hard on Kotone – she was not the type of girl to get down like this after all, and redhead couldn't remember a time where he had seen her sad despite the rudeness and the massive challenges she had faced. Yet, here she was, the Johto champion who constantly bested him and took his dreams and heart as rewards, was crying in _his_ arms because she felt like she wasn't good enough for one person who she did it all for.


	7. Chapter Seven

_A/N: I never liked the idea of Pokemon games having eleven year old kids run off into the world on their own, so despite what FireRed and LeafGreen said, Silver and Kotone are 15 and 14 respectively. It allows for far more freedom in fanfiction ratings as well._

* * *

She had fallen asleep.

And taken his shoulder with her, no less.

Silver groaned, eyeing the girl who less than an hour ago had been crying her eyes out to him and who now was sleeping peacefully on his shoulder. The truth was that he didn't really mind this position – on the contrary, but he doubted his thudding heart would let him get any sleep at all during the night and morning would be all too awkward. Silver had to somehow get her to her room. First things first though, he recalled Typhlosion back to his pokeball; the pokemon could wake up any minute and the boy did not trust him by himself in Kotone's house – anybody's house for that matter, with free roam to do whatever he wanted. "Useless bastard…" Resenting the afore mentioned pokemon, the redhead slipped one hand under Kotone's knees, and one on her back and took a deep breath before lifting the sleeping girl off the couch. _Guh!_ The movies made it look so easy! Silver glanced to Meganium for help only to realize the grass type pokemon, along with his butterfree, had already fallen asleep. _Great_, not only was he by himself, the boy would have to maneuver around the large meganium before going up the stairs. How the heck did that pokemon manage to get inside the house anyway?

"Sil… ver…?"

_Crap_, had she woken up? Silver definitely didn't want Kotone to get any wrong ideas, and that would be easy to do so in this position. Yet, Kotone lay motionless, indicating to her carrier that she was still fast asleep. Was she… dreaming about him? Silver blushed a deep red and his heart once again began to beat noticeably. Somehow, the thought of her dreaming of him made Kotone feel a lot lighter, and the boy took a deep breath before wobbling over to the stairs.

* * *

_Creak. Creak._

There was something that just felt… _wrong_ about this place. Despite that Kotone could see enough light coming through the windows to indicate it was sunny outside, the mansion felt ridiculously cold, and each creaking sound caused by her footsteps synchronized with her heartbeat. The mansion looked old, and had clearly been abandoned for some time, and the smell of wood and mold was in the air. Kotone didn't know what it was, but she felt like she had to get out, the place wasn't safe and she could swear the shadows were moving. She didn't know where she could be, but it looked like a hallway with many doors, each one looking the same. The trainer took a deep breath, and walked the one two doors in front of her, to the right. It… seemed to be beckoning to be opened.

As she saw the television screen, she instantly regretted her choice. It was on and making static, something impossible for a long abandoned house. Kotone's eyes widened and an invisible force pushed her back. It was like slow-motion, and turning around she could see stairs. Stairs? Wasn't this how…? The frightened girl closed her eyes, and prepared for the impact which awaited her.

_**Craashh!**_

It wasn't the crash she was waiting for – not the sound of a person falling down the stairs and breaking her neck. No, it was the sound of waves crashing against a rocky cliff. Opening her eyes, Kotone looked below her and saw the blue ocean attacking the rocks beside her. She was dangling in mid-air and the only thing that was keeping her from plunging into the ocean forever was a hand grabbing her wrist. The girl looked up to see her savior.

"KOTONE!"

That voice…? What was Silver doing at route 25? The redheaded boy was gritting his teeth, clarly using all his strength to keep her from dropping into the depths below. With his spare hand, Silver grabbed at a rope and threw it down for her to catch. Kotone nodded, and grabbed at the rope, before her year-long rival let go of her wrist to get at the rope. Once the girl was grabbing at the rope with both her hands, Silver pulled her up to safety with unknown strength, before pulling her into a tight embrace.

"Silver…?"

"I'm sorry…" Kotone could feel the boy trembling. Was he… crying? "I shouldn't have brought you here… You shouldn't be here… not with me…"

* * *

The pigtailed girl opened her eyes slightly, only to tightly close them as a reaction to the seemingly blinding morning light. Thinking about her strange dream, Kotone hardly noticed her new location aloft on her bed. _Wait_… she didn't remember ever walking up the stairs to go to bed. Blushing at her realization that she had probably fell asleep on Silver, Kotone sat up on her bed and scrunched the soft bed sheets under her fingers. She wasn't a very heavy sleeper, so Silver putting her on Meganium would have woken her up; he must have carried her up the stairs himself. Kotone peered out the door and to the stairs as if to study the boy's possible methods. It wasn't like she was overweight or anything, but carrying her all the way up here must have been quite the daunting task. But if Silver put her in her bed then… Kotone glanced down – she was wearing the same clothes from yesterday! Sighing, the girl slipped off the furniture to her closet, wondering what (clean) clothes she could wear for that day. Her mother was probably arriving later that evening and while Kotone was dying to go back to pokemon training it wouldn't be right to take off after not seeing her mom for so long. Keeping this in mind, the girl pulled out a long white skirt which had been hidden out of plain sight. Kotone grinned at the sight of it, she couldn't remember the last time she had worn a skirt. Well, this was her last chance to do so before going back to her old lifestyle so might as well. The girl pulled out a generic pink turtleneck before tugging on the hair-bands holding her pigtails into place. Scratching the back of her head at the feeling of suddenly having her hair loose, Kotone grabbed the rest of her necessary clothing in a neat pile before heading out of her room and into the bathroom.

She definitely didn't expect to run into a half naked Silver drying his hair with a towel, however.

Silver looked at Kotone with bashful shock and confusion. _Damn it,_ years of living by himself had made him forget that bathrooms had locks to be used in situations like this. Well, at least he wasn't stark naked or anything. It was only after what seemed to be his life's longest two seconds of awkward silence and staring, the boy finally got the courage to speak up.

"It's… it's called knocking, woman!"

Quickly realizing that she had been staring, at Silver's words she quickly backed out and closed to door before muttering an apology, leaving Silver alone in the bathroom and more red than he usually was. He… had never seen Kotone's hair down, had he?

"I-It's called locking the door!"

Kotone huffed, and then mentally groaned. The boy was right, she was still somewhat half asleep and hadn't even thought Silver would want to take a shower in the morning. The trainer quietly waited outside the door for her guest to finish up, leaning against the wall. Kotone then heard what seemed to be a familiar snicker, and looked to her right where she saw Silver's Typhlosion and her own Meganium with the strangest look of shock she had ever seen on his face. Said pokemon then regained his composure and promptly stomped on Typhlosion's toes, turning the fire pokemon's snickers into whimpers of pain. Sweet, sweet whimpers of pain. _Why you little piece of…_

_Click!_

"All yours."

This time fully clothed, the redhead stepped out of the bathroom. Silver then quickly glared at his riled up pokemon, warning Typhlosion not to do anything he wanted to do. Grumbling the pokemon equivalent of obscenities, the pokemon walked over to his waiting master's side. The redhead took one last look at Kotone before she quickly moved into the bathroom, hoping to dodge any more awkwardness headed her way, closing the door behind her. Almost as if Meganium had known what was up, the pokemon promptly squeezed himself between Silver and the bathroom door, and staring straight into the human's eyes with almost a hint of a glare, the boy could swear he _did_ know. Either way, it seemed Kotone had herself a guard. Silver just glared back at the pokemon before heading downstairs, Typhlosion in tow. The boy sighed, and covered his face with his hands. _Arceus_, was that embarrassing! Kotone's house suddenly feeling confining, Silver had half a mind to just dash until reaching Goldenrod and never show up in this town again – this time for sure. Yet, it'd be impolite to just run off like that without properly thanking the girl who let him stay the night. He just hoped she didn't think he was some sort of pervert now. Sighing once more in frustration, Silver plopped on the couch and eyed his pokemon. Typhlosion was facing the stairs, looking anxious about Arceus knew what. He knew that his typhlosion had a habit of being aggressive around… pretty much what wasn't a female he could breed with, but the fire pokemon was particularly nasty towards Kotone's grass starter. His original pokemon was nothing but trouble, wasn't he? Silver didn't even know why he bothered letting him out of his pokeball, he must have gotten into the habit of it after his defeat at Kotone's hands at the pokemon league. Even so, Kotone's pokemon were well behaved and his… well, wasn't.

_Ring! Ring!_

The doorbell! Oh for Arceus's sake, like he didn't have a rough start to his day as it was. Silver grimaced; first, he wakes up to a rough start by falling off the couch (he had to admit that one of the few things he missed from Viridian was a decently sized bed), then he forgot to lock the door to the bathroom when he was staying as a guest over in the house of a girl he had an enormous crush on and now said girl was probably pissed off at him and thought he was some sort of pervert. And now that idiot _Gold_, or whatever his name was, was probably at the door and Silver would probably have to welcome him inside or… something. The point was that he did _not_ want to deal with that _moron_. The hotheaded boy groaned, and stomped over to the door before flinging it open and giving the coldest, most evil glare he could muster at the person standing outside. Things could _not_ get any worse.

"WHAT?"

"Um…" A middle aged woman with a gentle face stood where Silver was expecting an annoying kid to be. "Why are you in my house? Where's Kotone?"

They just _did_.

Before Silver could get over the shock of making quite possibly the worst mistake of his life and apologize, an angel quickly descended down the stairs to save him from Worst Scenario Possible. The redhead couldn't help but stare; he never thought Kotone could look so… feminine? _Gah_, it was only a change of clothes and hair style, what was the big deal? Stupid, stupid, stupid crush.

"Mom? I thought you wouldn't be back until late," Kotone jumped into her mother's arms, even as she asked that question. Her mother tenderly held her daughter. Silver felt awkward just standing there, feeling like an intruder where he was not supposed to belong.

"It's okay, grandma was feeling fine this morning and told me it was okay to go back home." The woman then faced Silver, who froze in place. "And who is this?"

"A-ah!" Now that she thought about it, Kotone should have called her mom telling her that someone would be staying over. Blushing in embarrassment, she had to come up with an explanation which wouldn't give her mom the wrong idea about the redhead boy.

"This is Silver, he was keeping me company since Gold had some errands to run at his grandparent's."

Silver frowned at Kotone's mentioning of Gold. _Wait_, did that mean that had the idiot not had to play little red riding hood he would have spent Arceus knows how many days alone with Kotone and with a house all to themselves? Trying to shake off his rage as he had already left quite the bad impression to Kotone's mother and he didn't want to come across like more of a criminal than he already had, Silver forced down his grimace.

"I'm sorry for being so rude earlier I… thought you were someone else."

"Oh, it's all right. Hm…" The woman turned to face her daughter, "It seems you have the same taste in boys your mom has…"

_Wha-?_ What was mom talking about? Was she implying that…? Kotone's felt her face flush – she was doing that a lot lately, wasn't she?

"Silver? No, he's…" The girl turned over to look at her companion, who was probably sporting the same bashful expression she was. "He and I are just… friendly rivals." It wasn't exactly true on Silver's side of the equation, but not knowing how else to react the redheaded boy simply nodded in agreement.

"Really?" Kotone's mother looked slightly surprised, and she turned to look back at Silver, studying his face. The boy felt himself sweat at being the unwanted and awkwardly placed attention. Yet the older woman broke the moment with a smile for him, and then another one for her daughter.

"I'm sorry about that. Anyway I just came here to tell you I was back, Dr. Elm asked me to do a favor for him in Hoenn so I have to run to see him and I'll be back soon."

Dr. Elm? Kotone blinked. She had totally forgotten about Celebi! The professor certainly would want to do research on the time traveling pokemon, and she could only imagine the possibilities of what that research could do for the world.

"Hang on." Kotone chirped. "I need you to give something to Professor Elm on my part." Before Silver could blink, the girl quickly ran up the stairs for whatever item she needed, leaving him alone with her mother. The boy simply stayed silent, studying the stairs. Now that Kotone's mother was back, he should probably not overstay his welcome and leave soon. Kotone would likely do so as well, but judging by her choice in clothing and loose hair the Johto champion would leave the following day. Silver mentally sighed, despite the awkwardness and bad luck it was nice to spend some time with the girl he had feelings for, since it could be a long time before he saw her again…

"… She's more than a friendly rival to you, isn't she?"

Silver could feel his heart skip a beat. Kotone's mother could tell just by looking at him? Was that even possible? Or was it all just too obvious? The boy was speechless; all he could do was stare at the woman with his eyes wide in surprise.

"My husband was the kind of man who wasn't great with words, so I had to become good at reading emotions."

Kotone's mother only smiled gently back at him. It was really quite shocking how laid back this woman was, she wasn't upset at all regarding him staying over alone with her daughter or even him being immensely rude to her. Wouldn't she disapprove of a guy like him being interested in Kotone? Especially since Silver reminded her of her own missing husband? And she didn't even know he happened to be the son of the head of a large organized crime syndicate! No matter what way he looked at it, the redheaded boy had bad news written all over him. Clenching his hands into fists, Silver lowered his head in an all too familiar emotion: shame.

"It doesn't matter… she could never feel the same way about me anyway."

The truth was that with everything that had happened since he arrived in New Bark Town, Silver had gotten a smidgen of hope that maybe Kotone had become able to return his feelings, and was even planning on telling her about his own. Heck, they weren't something as simple a crush anymore, this time Silver really _had_ fallen in love with Kotone, but now with her livelihood, the livelihood of this town and a reminder of his own past behavior… he really didn't belong here, did he? That's why everything felt awkward. It was… pointless.

Typhlosion, who had been unusually quiet since the older human entered the house, came to his trainer's side. Yes, he was every bit of a prick he was accused of, but he honestly had grown to care about his trainer, pitifully complicated as humans were. Sure, the fire pokemon didn't understand what was going in between _the_ _weed's_ trainer and his own, all he knew was that Silver changed emotions around her faster than a ditto churned out eggs and he was clearly attracted to her, but humans were ridiculously confusing and he couldn't make heads or tails out of them. Silver's behavior was really frustrating but all Typhlosion could do was be by his master's side.

"All right, here it is!" Kotone came down the stairs where her mother and Silver were waiting for her, an odd looking pokeball in her hand and her meganium following suit. Kotone paused to catch her breath at the bottom of the stairs, when she spotted something that she was not used to at all: Silver was smiling! She could hear her heart thud when she noticed, but… something wasn't quite right with his smile. It was genuine but… his eyes seemed so sad…

"It's a pokemon, Professor Elm should be able to recognize what it is." Kotone carefully placed the pokeball in her mother's hand, as if it was a treasure, but that was what pokemon were to her after all. Each one she did capture eventually gained a special spot in her heart, she did have a big enough one to fit them all in. The woman smiled, her daughter really had a heart of gold, didn't she?

"I'll take it to him then, I'm sure that whatever pokemon it is, it must be important if you need to take it directly there." The mother smiled, placing the pokeball in her purse, and opened to the door to leave. "I'll be back soon, so behave." With a click, Kotone and Silver were alone once again, and the girl sighed in relief. She was wondering just how early her former rival had woken up to offer him breakfast when she heard her own stomach protesting its emptiness.

"Oh, um… do you want some breakfast?"

The redhead's rare smile was gone, and crossing his arms with a tint of a glare in his eyes he was definitely back to being the old Silver.

"Just coffee, thanks."

Kotone blinked, before heading walking into the kitchen. Coffee? Wasn't he a bit too young to be drinking that? What more, didn't he want anything to actually eat? "Are you sure that's all you want?"

"Yeah." The boy said in response. "Since your mom's here I should leave soon anyway."

"I see…" The girl muttered as she felt strangely disappointed. Kotone was beginning to greatly enjoy her rival's company, but he was right. Both of them were rather busy trainers: Kotone was the Johto champion and did not want to lose her title and Silver was definitely still after it, and after what happened earlier in the morning and mom implying… _that_, the boy was probably itching to scram.

"Milk or cream?"

"None."

After a few minutes, Kotone then walked back to Silver, who once again found himself waiting on the couch. She was carefully carrying a small plate with a blue mug – the only mug which wasn't pink in the house. The girl carefully handed him the plate and sat down next to him, looking rather relaxed. She then petted Typhlosion on the head, and an offended Meganium growled, before stomping over and sitting between his trainer and the typhlosion. The two pokemon swapped grunts, but otherwise didn't seem to want to get into conflict as they usually did.

"Before I leave though… I need to ask you something."

Silver looked pensive, whatever he wanted to ask was something that must be important.

"What is it?"

Putting the mug down on the coffee table, Silver noticed the two plates from last night, and then turned to face Kotone. They had certainly gotten along better since he found her next to the Illex shrine late at night. That was when she told him she about his parenthood. Could her staying outside in such an abnormal location and time have something to do with her finding about who his father was?

"A week ago when we met at Illex shrine… you told me you knew I was Giovanni's son."

Silver was giving Kotone a piercing stare, making her gulp. This time it was obvious she couldn't just brush it off like she did a week ago; the boy was very determined to figure out how she had met the head of Team Rocket.

"I made _sure_ to cover my tracks. What _were_ you doing there so late at night of all places? How did you find out? Who told you?"

"I…" Kotone looked nervous, and Silver sighed. He was probably being too harsh on her. Whatever did happen for her to find out, she didn't seem to be very eager to talk about it. This, however, simply made him more curious. Kotone wasn't the probing type, so it was likely she came across the information simply by chance – the trainer _did_ have a habit of stumbling into the strangest situations and Silver himself could attest to that.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to rush you into an answer."

Kotone sighed audibly. "It's all right. You have the right to know…" The trainer petted her meganium on the head and the pokemon emitted a noise comparable to a purr. Typhlosion stared expectantly at his trainer, wondering why he never got as much attention. Silver just ignored the fire type pokemon. "I can tell you but… it's kind of hard to believe."

"Hmph, everything that has happened in the last year is difficult to believe, and you believed me when I told you about my mother's death." Silver turned away and focused on the wall across the room. "With everything that's happened in the last year I could believe anything." The redheaded trainer took one last sip from the mug, before permanently putting it down. He had picked up the coffee habit from his sister, but he felt like he never needed it like he did now. What could have happened between Kotone and his father that would be difficult to believe? "He… didn't find you and threaten you or anything, did he?"

"No, it wasn't like that at all…" Kotone gripped at her skirt, scrunching it up. She was trying to relax at Silver's words – what he said it was true, at this point of their lives the two trainers probably thought anything was possible. That wasn't really the issue, the girl knew why Silver wanted to defeat Team Rocket and become a great the best trainer, and she had taken that away from him. She was surprised that the boy didn't seem to hate her as it was – on the contrary, he had become a lot nicer since their double battle against Lance and Claire. Still, from her experiences Kotone knew that Silver was always extra irritable whenever team rocket or his father was brought up. She was afraid that if he knew she had defeated his father, he would hate her. She didn't want all the progress they had made since Dragon's Den to go to waste. For some reason the idea of Silver hating her felt incredibly painful.

"The truth is…" Kotone took one single deep breath. "I caught the guardian of the forest, and… he can time travel."

* * *

Silver sighed, and rested his head in his hand. It was deep in his memories, but he did very vaguely remember two older teens watching his argument between himself and his father. It was an incredible story, no doubt about it, but it was no lie. He looked into Kotone's eyes the whole time and they were truthful – why would she pull such a ridiculous story like that anyway? It would explain why his father never appeared at the Goldenrod radio tower, Kotone's location when he met up with her a week ago, and why Gold was able to recognize him. However, there was one thing he simply didn't understand: Why would Celebi take such an interest with him and Giovanni? The pokemon was obviously far more intelligent than a regular rattata, so there must have been a reason behind showing Kotone the argument he had with his father.

"I think… you should find your father."

Silver glared at Kotone, and for a second she thought a pile of snow had fallen on top of her. Silver was fantastic at intimidating people with glares, but they had never really affected her until now.

"That's ridiculous, it would be great if the bastard stayed in that cave and rotted there."

"He's your dad, you should at least _try_ to talk to him..."

"You don't know my father!"

Giovanni was a manipulative, evil man. It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for him to fool a young girl into thinking there was even a tiny bit of good in him, the man had done the exact same to Silver's mother before they had gotten married, before he blackmailed her to live in that horrible mansion which eventually caused her and his sister's deaths. The redhead vividly remembered their funeral – the last time he had ever cried. Silver protested the burial of Marie, begging his father to go back into the house and look for her because she was still in there – he was still a child and didn't understand the difference between the living and those with perished bodies. Giovanni, however, thought otherwise, and slapped his son in front of the entire family. Silver was always a spoilt brat, and had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth; it was a total first for him to have received _any_ punishment for his actions and an enormous shock to him. _It disgusts me that my own son is so stupid and weak…_

Kotone was wide-eyed and taken aback by the way he had shouted at her. It was clear he wasn't welcome in this house any more, and there was no way he could stay here anymore. Silver clenched his fists and stood up, he lightly kicked Typhlosion, motioning for him to get up and ready to leave as well. "Come on, bastard, we're leaving." The fire pokemon grumbled, but had no choice but to obey his trainer.

Kotone could only watch as Silver angrily walked out the door and did not look back.

He was gone.


	8. Chapter Eight

It was amazing how the trees north of Eucretek city were always crisp and orange, as if permanently affixed in autumn, and it was unknown to Kotone how it was that the ground was always covered in their crisp leaves yet the trees never seemed to lose much of their foliage. Stranger still, the place was always ominously quiet despite only being in the outskirts of the small city, but that only made it a better location to get away from the noise and excitement which followed the Johto champion. Silence was definitely something Kotone appreciated while she cradled the egg the day care man had given her in her arms and thought about the one person she could not get out of her mind. Despite that she loved to come to this particular spot to relax, the spiky red undertones of the trees only seemed to remind her more of her predicament, and the pigtailed girl sighed as she watched one particular red leaf fall on the mysterious pokemon egg.

_Silver…_

It had been a month since Kotone had last seen her rival, and she wondered when she would bump into him again, but more of how he would behave with her when they did eventually meet up. She doubted Silver would go back to being the same thief she had caught sulking in a shadowed corner from a year ago, but would it all go back to the icy glares and forceful shoves from back then?

"_You don't know my father!"_

It wasn't totally uncalled for, Kotone had spoken too soon about a man she knew next to nothing about and who Silver did. But at the moment she just couldn't understand how Silver could forsake his own family, as terrible as they could be. Of course, Kotone didn't want Silver to become part of Team Rocket, or anything relating to Team Rocket, but she thought maybe by talking to the Rocket Boss and Executive maybe they could also see the error of their ways. To Silver that very thought of just talking to Giovanni was just maddeningly foolish, and maybe she should have realized that when he told her about his relatives' deaths. Still, Kotone didn't believe it warranted being yelled at, to be glared like that. She wondered if Silver realized how much it had hurt her. _It really did hurt…_ but why?

A whistle of wind blew through the treetops, and the girl felt two more leaves land on her shoulder and her hat. Kotone brushed the nuisances off but they were soon replaced by others similar to themselves. Holding a leaf in her hand, she wondered if the idea of her and Silver getting along was a fruitless one since the start. Yes, they both did have similar goals and slightly similar stories, but they were from different backgrounds and grew up with different ideals. Kotone clutched her hand into a fist, causing the leaf to turn into tiny pieces and another breeze blew them away from her hand. She never had a problem with Silver hating her before, why did it suddenly hurt so much? What was that strange tightness in her chest? It only seemed to get worse when she thought about the unfortunate turn of events as she last saw him. _Why…?_

"_I shouldn't have brought you here..."_

Kotone wasn't the kind of person who would wake up remembered every dream she had, and it was very rare to remember a dream so clearly even after an entire month had passed. The first part of the dream she could understand, that was where Silver had lived in, right? Kotone wasn't a psychic, she didn't know if it looked exactly like that, but… the girl shivered. If it was anything close it would have been such a horrible place to be in, and the feeling of desperation which inundated the abandoned mansion in her dream was simply overwhelming. She was just putting herself in his shoes, right? Kotone did fall asleep soon after he told her about it after all, it made sense. The trainer sighed deeply, pulling the hair knocked out by the wind behind her ear. What about when Silver pulled her to safety of that cliff?

"_You're shouldn't be here…"_

What was it about route 25? Kotone remembered battling that group of trainers – their name eluded her, Bill's grandfather's house, Misty and her date was there, supposed to be a romantic spot…

"_Not with me…"_

Kotone's eyes widened as she stood up, startling the meganium at her side. The girl gasped at her realization, and pressed her spare hand to her now hot cheek. Memories of her hotheaded rival flooded her mind, and Kotone gulped, her heart pounding furiously. _I… I…_

_Ring! Ring! Ring!_

Meganium snorted, not appreciating the earlier rude surprise. His trainer had been behaving very strangely ever since they last saw the hotheads, and he swore that the human girl changed colors faster than a breeding kecleon. The grass type pokemon closed his eyes, hoping Kotone would eventually calm down and forget about the imbecile and his trainer. It wasn't like they made their lives any pleasant, but apparently sense was something humans had very little of.

Kotone's heart had jumped when she heard her phone ring, and had halfway expected to see Silver's name on the screen only to realize it was her mother. She felt like an idiot, Silver hadn't called at all in the last month, why would he do so now? Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, the now red girl picked up the restless pokegear and answered her mother's call.

"Mom…?"

"Oh my, you sound rather disappointed answering your mother, don't you?" Kotone grinned as her mother teased her, she didn't know half the story! The truth was that when mom came back from Professor Elm's lab, the girl had lied about Silver leaving, saying he simply had something to do and Kotone wasn't about to explain to her mom, especially if it meant acknowledging she had been right about her and Silver. "Well, I kind of figure, saying farewell to that redheaded boy and all, you two seemed pretty close."

The girl gasped. Farewell? Why would she have to say goodbye to Silver? They would eventually bump into each other, since he was still after the championship she had, wasn't he…? Mom was obviously getting confused or had heard wrong or something.

"Why… why would I have to say good-bye…?"

"Huh?" The mother seemed surprised at her daughter's ignorance. "… You mean you don't know?"

Kotone gritted her teeth impatiently, what was going on? What could mom know about Silver that she didn't? Where was he going? Where could he possibly be going? It wasn't like he had much of a family or… _Wait_… the girl gasped. He did have a family, just not in Kanto or Johto. Kotone's heart sunk, _He couldn't…_

"What's going on, mom? Tell me!"

The older woman sighed through her phone, she didn't think her daughter could go through the same thing she had, especially at her age and with her incredibly talent. She remembered what the boy had said about his feelings for her daughter. It was tragic, now Silver was leaving without telling Kotone about it when she was discovering her feelings for him. The woman could tell by the strain on her voice.

"This morning I was visiting the Professor when he got a call from the Olivine city gym leader, Jasmine I think was her name…"

* * *

Earlier that day…

_Clang CLANK!_

Typhlosion roared at his victory, glad that this time he could trash an immense mineral pokemon, as dealing with the ladies with the pink haired human had been a nightmare. Well, one for his trainer anyway. This time it was accessories off, as he had no mercy for the pokemon who weren't charming girls.

With Typhlosion, Jasmine's Steelix didn't stand a chance. Silver grinned at his final victory; it had taken several months, but he had finally defeated Johto's last gym leader. His opponent sighed, and called back the defeated pokemon to its ball, then gave the redhead a shy smile. "Congratulations, you're the first person to defeat me since the champion. Are you going to try out at the league?"

Silver sighed, before approaching the timid girl for his reward. Jasmine grabbed a small box from her purse where the Mineral badges were located, before handing the redheaded boy one of his own. "No, actually, I'm heading to Sinnoh." The gym leader looked at her challenger in wonder; she was heading to that region herself! Strong, cute and now sharing something in common, Jasmine wasn't the flirty type but she thought it was her chance to ask a guy out, as being a leader she didn't always have the chance to.

"Wow, I-I'm actually going to Sinnoh too! Um…" Jasmine looked down, studying her feet. "Would you like to accompany me to the City diner later this evening? Don't worry; I'll… cover the cost."

The redhead gazed at the shy girl in surprise, was she asking him out on a date? "Uh… well…" Silver sighed, remembering how he had walked out on the girl he actually had feelings for. That situation was hopeless now, even if he had decided to stay in Johto. It wouldn't hurt to date a gym leader and besides, he himself came from gym leaders on both sides, it would make sense, wouldn't it? "Well… sure." The boy shrugged. "The place near the dock, right?"

Jasmine nodded shyly, still looking at her feet. The gym leader would have to remind herself not to eat as much as she usually did now that she was going with a boy. Silver simply nodded in return, then turned around and walked away with his hands in his pockets, followed by his exhausted typhlosion. The sound of shoes and claws clanking against the steel gym's metal floors almost muffled the fifteen-year-old's murmur. "See you later, I guess." For now though, it was still impossible for him to get one pig-tailed girl off his mind.

* * *

_Man,_ Silver was glad he didn't have to pay the bill because this girl _ate_. The slower eater could only watch as Jasmine went on her third plate while he was barely finishing his first and only one. Even then, Silver wondered if it would still be polite to pay for his share, since they had already met and they were going on the same boat to Sinnoh the two would probably see each other more, it would be best to get along.

"So…" the long haired gym leader cut her meal into smaller pieces. "Is this your first time going to Sinnoh? What brings you there?"

_I was born in Sinnoh and spent most of my childhood there but my mother and sister were pushed down the stairs by an evil ghost, so we moved to Viridian city in Kanto where my dad was the gym leader but then he decided he wanted to run a criminal organization for profit. He was defeated by the Kanto champion who was only a kid so when I was old enough I ran to Johto and stole pokemon myself. Then I fell for the Johto champion who constantly bested me, but will never return my feelings, and I feel I should re-establish connections with the family I have in Sinnoh and hopefully stay and forget about her._

Silver sighed. Yeah, he would definitely have to go with the simpler route when it came to explaining his predicament and why he was getting on the S.S. Marine to where he was born. He looked out the window and saw the lights shimmering from the ship's windows against the darkening skies. It wouldn't be long before he boarded it, saying good-bye to Johto, Kanto, and all the memories he had collected here. He also wouldn't see Kotone for quite a long time and it was a shame his last memory of her would be an angry one, but at least it would help both of them move on which is why he hadn't called to apologize. Kotone hadn't called either, so Silver assumed that she was still upset, which was fine as she had every right to be.

"I was born in Sinnoh, but my family moved to Kanto when I was a kid after my mother passed away." The trainer grabbed his glass of water, still fixated on the large ship outside. It wouldn't leave for another while, but people were already starting to board it. "My dad wasn't on good terms with my mom's family so I haven't been in contact with them since." The boy returned his sights on the girl in front of him. "A few years ago I had a falling out with my father myself, so I figured I'd pay my family there a visit, see what I've been missing out, and train there before coming back for the league."

"Oh…" Silver had to suppress a gasp when he realized Jasmine had just finished her third plate. How did such a shy-faced girl like her have such a ravenous appetite? "So you're going to be there a while, huh?" Silver nodded, and finished up his meal as he listened to the gym leader speak. "You sure you have everything done in Johto? No regrets or anything, right?" Jasmine signaled at one of the waiters for the bill. To her surprise, once she turned back to the cute redhead he was blushing. Jasmine felt disappointed, a girl, right? Ah well, at least she would have someone to talk to on the trip there.

"Uh…" Jasmine was a nice girl and had been rather polite to Silver; it would be unfair to get her hopes up if he did have someone else in mind. The boy figured he might as well tell the gym leader, but he would definitely have to leave the detail about her being the Johto champion out. "There's a girl I didn't tell I was leaving." Silver sighed audibly. He hadn't really told anybody about Kotone and what he felt about her, and it was something he wasn't at all comfortable with. "And last time I saw her I yelled at her. I guess it's okay if she hates me since that way she won't be sad when I'm not around. Oh, I'll pay for half of the bill…"

"No, no." Jasmine waved her date off. "It's… it's okay. I did invite you and say I'd cover the bill. Don't worry about it." Before Silver could protest, Jasmine had already handed the waiter the necessary amount. The boy groaned lightly, there was nothing more he disliked than depending on others. "Are you friends with her?"

"I… guess…" Silver's blush deepened, remembering all the memories he shared with Kotone and all they had been through together. She obviously did care about him, and they had become quite a bit closer when they opened up their pasts to each other a month ago. Were they friends? It was possible. "More like… rivals, really."

"Well…" Jasmine grabbed her purse and coat, and began to stand up, and Silver followed suit himself. "I can't criticize you since I… don't know the details but…" The gym leader waved at the waiters and receptionist as she walked out of the diner, clearly being familiar with them as a regular. "I'd be sad if someone I knew was going away, e-especially if he didn't even let me say good-bye. I always make sure to tell my friends when I'm going somewhere." Jasmine looked at her side at the taller boy. "You clearly have strong feelings for this girl, I'm sure you know each other well…" Jasmine looked down at the stony Olivine city sidewalk, feeling embarrassed. She was talking too much, wasn't she? "Even if she doesn't return your feelings I'm sure she at least cares about you."

Silver stopped in his tracks. The gym leader was right, it was unfair to Kotone for him to leave without a trace and without apologizing or saying good-bye to her. She deserved an apology and an explanation. He gritted his teeth, and turned around to look north, back to Johto. A strange cold wind was blowing southward; perfect weather for sailing. How could he have been so selfish? Kotone would eventually try to search him out in Dragon's Den or Ilex Forest, only to wait for someone who would not appear.

"You're right. Go ahead to the ship. I'm going to try to call her… and thanks."

Jasmine nodded in understanding, then jogged towards the ship. _Brr!_ How weird, it was late spring already, so why was it this chilly? The gym leader held on to her coat tightly with one hand, her other hand occupied with her suitcase. She wished she had known earlier about the weather as to not wear her knee-length dress. Jasmine took one last look at the redhead, before entering the small building from where she would leave to Sinnoh for her second time. It was such a shame to have to say good-bye on such a short notice and over the pokegear as well.

_Ring! Riiing!_

KOTONE flashed on Silver's pokegear's screen, and in surprise he almost dropped it. _Man_, did Kotone have fantastic timing! His heart racing, the boy looked at the screen for two seconds, trying to think of a way to explain things to her. Not being able to come up with anything, the now even redder redhead nervously clicked the answer button and held his breath as he pressed the gear to his ear.

"Ko… Kotone?"

"Silver, you… you…" The girl was clearly upset. Had she somehow managed to find out about his departure? "You bastard! You better not get on that ship, I'm heading there right now!"

"Wh-where are you? Kotone?"

_Click! … ..._

Silver widened his eyes in shock. Kotone had _never_ talked to him like that, not even back when they had first met and he had certainly deserved it. _Damn it_, Silver looked up at the night sky, looking for any sign of the light which emanated from her charizard's tail. He inwardly cursed, Kotone was most likely flying to Olivine city. While not prohibited in any way, flying during the night was uncommon because of the low temperatures at high altitudes and at high speeds. The situation was only made worse as it was an unnaturally chilly night. He could only hope her fire-type pokemon would give off enough heat to keep the girl warm. Silver clenched his fists, hating that all he could do was wait.

They were the longest twenty minutes of his life, and Silver had even let out Typhlosion out of his pokeball for _some_ sort of comfort (yeah, _right_), when he finally spotted the brilliant flame which could only belong to one of Kotone's pokemon. The black charizard landed with a thud on stony street after giving off one final flap of her crimson wings, which sent a gust of wind in all directions. The Johto champion hastily jumped down from the large pokemon, followed by her trusty meganium.

"You idiot!" Silver jogged towards the girl, pulling his jacket off quickly before draping it over her then grabbing her shoulders. "It's freaking _cold_ and yet you are flying here from Arceus knows where without a simple jacket? What were you _thinking_?" Kotone simply looked up at the older boy with a tragic stare Silver instantly knew. His eyes widened, instantly recognizing what it meant; he himself had worn it continuously over the last month. It was a look of desperation and hopelessness present on his face whenever Kotone entered his thoughts. Why was she looking at him like that? _Was it possible…?_

Kotone lowered her head in shame, once again something Silver was not expecting out of his usually energetic and happy rival. He noticed how her hands trembled and she held on to his jacket for comfort, and her voice wasn't exactly firm either. "Why… why are you leaving? Why didn't you tell me?" The girl looked up at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Why, Silver? Do… do you hate me?"

Silver let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and slowly let go of his grip on Kotone's shoulders. There was no getting out of it now, and there was no use lying to her – or to himself anymore. Silver simply had to tell her how he really felt and risk a very possible rejection. He sighed, a simple farewell wouldn't cut it now.

"I don't hate you. The truth is…" Silver made sure to look at Kotone straight in the eyes, and Kotone felt herself fidget under them, her heart beating skipping beats at incrementing intervals. Unexpectedly, his gaze softened, but that only seemed to make her heart beat faster.

"Kotone… I… I love you."

Mustering what felt like every drop of courage in his body, Silver leaned in and gently pressed his lips against hers. This was it. As wonderful as the feeling of Kotone's lips were, this could be the best or worst moment during his time in Johto. Then, something amazing happened. Silver felt Kotone's arms wrap around his shoulders firmly, telling him everything he needed and wanted to know. The boy returned the embrace, but far more strongly and hastily than hers. Was he dreaming? Despite a year of rudeness, shoving, glares, and insults. A year of rivalry, battles and stealing. Damn it, a month of Kotone knowing _who_ he was and _where_ he came from; He was _Giovanni's son_ for earth's sake! Yet… despite all that… despite all that…?

Typhlosion elbowed the meganium, who now was sporting a comical look of horror on his face. _Seems like you'll be seeing a lot of me soon, huh?_ Despite the enormous shock and horror of the implications of a relationship between the two trainers, as if it were a reflex Meganium reacted by stomping on the toes of the typhlosion, causing said pokemon to yelp and yowl in pain. _Shitty piece of compost!_

Charizard rolled her eyes at the two other pokemon. Sure it was a surprise, but why were they all up in arms about it? _Ugh, males…_ She would never understand them.

The loud sound of the ship's horn filled the dock, and Silver had no choice but to break the kiss and the embrace. The ship was going to disembark soon. As much as it pained him, and as bittersweet this farewell was, all his plans were made and he would not have this opportunity to go back to Sinnoh for a long time. That, and his ambitions from becoming champion were far from gone, regardless of whether Kotone was to be defeated or not.

"Kotone…" The girl looked up at Silver, not expecting what he was about to say next. "When I come back from Sinnoh I _will_ defeat you!" She blinked, surprised. It wasn't exactly the most romantic thing to say after a first kiss, after all! But… it wouldn't be Silver any other way, why would his feelings for her impede his desire to become champion? "Like hell you will!" The Johto champion wasn't about to go soft on him either. Her tears long gone, Kotone grinned. At least until Silver caught her completely off guard by what he said next.

"I will! And when I do… I'll marry you!"

_Whaaaaaat?_

Kotone searched Silver's face for any hint of it being a joke, but found none. He was _serious._ The shocked girl knew her rival-turned-boyfriend had a habit of being rash, reckless, impulsive, and not to mention cocky enough to count eggs before they hatched, but… marriage? How long was he planning on staying in Sinnoh anyway?

"I'll be back in a year." Silver huffed, seemingly not noticing the shock on Kotone's face. The redhead proceeded to turn around in the direction of the S.S. Marine. "Don't go giving up your championship to some loser before then."

"Wait!" The boy was stopped by Kotone's voice, and he proceeded to look at her quizzically. The trainer pulled out something out of her bag, before shoving it into Silver's hands. It was… an egg? Why was she giving him a pokemon egg?

"I got it at the day care… I want you to have it." Silver smiled, looking at the egg tenderly and then back at her with the same eyes. Kotone felt her heart jump – it was already starting to feel exhausted from everything which had happened today. Finally, a genuine smile from him, and it didn't look sad at all like the last one she had seen.

"Whatever it is, I'll take care of it. You can… keep my jacket too."

Blushing, Kotone held on to Silver's jacket tightly. It was still warm. "I will, thanks. You better call me once in a while."

"D-don't worry about that." The ships horn blared once again, warning that anybody not boarding it would be left behind. "Look, I have to go." The girl nodded, as much as it pained her to say good-bye, especially now, Silver had his reasons. With one last look, the redhead turned around, and accompanied by his typhlosion, disappeared into the same building Kotone had gone in to go to Kanto. Sighing Kotone looked back at her own two pokemon.

"We better train hard for when he gets back, right? Hey… Meg, are you all right? You don't look so good…"


	9. Epilogue

Silver wasn't exactly trying to avoid attention. He was all too used to it being drawn to him and his messy red hair, aloof glares, and now two large and intimidating looking pokemon at his shoulders walking behind him. One of them was older, and was a fire type pokemon who would have looked more ferocious had he not let his laziness show through his yawns. The other was a young, though fully evolved water type with a large jaw twisted into a comical grin. Clearly more energetic than her partner, the reptilian pokemon wagged her tail happily, almost knocking several passersby off their feet. Their trainer, however, didn't seem to care at all about their well being. He had other things on his mind.

_What the hell?_ How hard was it to find the Johto champion? Silver gritted his teeth. He was in a bad mood from running around the region hoping to somehow _blindly_ bump into his rival, and had released his two pokemon from their pokeballs in an effort to keep any challengers or annoyances at bay. Finally, he had been tipped off from the Ecruteak gym leader that Kotone enjoyed to rest at the entrance steps of the Bell Tower and could _possibly_ be there. Silver's steps turned into heavy stomping, and his determined stare into a cold glare causing anybody heading his way to jump to the side and gasp in fear. How the _hell_ did that purple obsessed _imbecile_ know something so key to Kotone that he didn't? It took all the restraint he had not to knock the ghost type user off his annoyingly _stupid_ invisible pathways. Silver smirked evilly, the Bell Tower, huh? Defeating the Ecruteak geishas was something he had taken care of before he had left for Sinnoh and with that done he didn't have to worry about the damn monks getting in his way at the abbey.

The noise of the busy streets faded away, slowly being replaced by the whispers of water from a nearby pond. Silver looked up at the large and elegant doors of the Barrier Station, which sported carvings of the mythical pokemon Ho-Oh. The truth was that Silver hadn't told Kotone about coming back, a few days ago he had simply woken up and decided it was time to go back to Johto and hadn't bothered to call and advise beforehand. The impulsive teenager put his hands on the doors and pushed them open and out of his way, surprising the monks out and about the station.

"Hey, you can't-"

"Get out of my way, old geezer!"

The old monk was speechless at the young man's rudeness. He wasn't exactly keen on letting the cold eyed boy enter to the Bellchime trail, but he had no choice, as the redhead was one of the few trainers who had shown his worth by defeating the city geishas. Grumbling, the guarding monk moved to the side, letting the teenager and his two large pokemon through. It was strange, the senior pondered, the teenager was wearing the exact same jacket the Johto champion had. It was a small comfort for him that the two might be connected; the champion was a good, sweet girl. She wouldn't associate herself with this boy if he was a delinquent of some sort, would she?

… Although he could swear that the fire pokemon just gave him the bird. What did kids teach their pokemon these days?

Once Silver saw his rival, his heart started going back to a familiar fast pace. Kotone had her back facing him, and was wearing the black jacket he had left with her. She had switched her overalls for a pair of loose white pants and - the teenager smirked, the girl had barely grown at all! If it weren't for her oversized trademark hat she wouldn't even reach his shoulders. _Man_, did he miss that ridiculous hat, and the springy pigtails which shot out beneath it. The girl was talking on her pokegear with somebody, and judging by the tone of her voice, it was probably some major loser.

"Seriously Brent, stop telling me obscure facts about Bill, it's getting kinda creepy, you know?"

Typhlosion was the first to make contact. On his four legs, he ran towards his adversary, eager to see the grass type's reaction to, well, himself. The fire pokemon jumped to tackle the meganium, but the would-be-victim's sharp senses made him duck, sending the typhlosion flying overhead. Typhlosion was able to make a quick recovery, and landed snap on his feet. Bright red flames burst out of the pokemon's neck, anticipating a fight, as he grinned at the grass-type. Meganium only could stare back in absolute horror. If Egomaniac was here that meant…

"I'm back, Kotone."

The girl gasped and her heart leapt. That voice…! Had it been a year since she had last heard it? More? It had felt like so long since she had seen the red-haired boy with the reluctant blush she had fallen in love with. Kotone gulped down, and slowly turned around to face the person she had waited for far too long…

"Silver…?"

Meganium had actually gasped in unison along with the girl once he noticed the Feraligatr at the male trainer's side. Wait… that egg from a year ago was _his_? And he had let his _own daughter _go to the hands of _that _trainer with _charcoalhead _of all pokemon? _Ugh_, he should have known about it. Interestingly, Feraligatr seemed to recognize her father and happily ran to tackle him, but unlike Typhlosion, she was more successful. "Feraghr!" The water pokemon wagged her tail happily at the reunion with her father, which involved a lot of added and rather uncomfortable weight for the older pokemon. Snickering at the amusing spectacle, Typhlosion sent a growl towards his rival. _You did it with a __Feraligatr__?_ His mockery was followed by more snickers at the meganium's choices in female company. Managing to get the reptilian pokemon from chomping on his antennae and off of him, Meganium retorted back at his longtime rival. _She had a cute personality… and a nice ass._ This only seemed to throw the fire pokemon hollering into more growls of laughter. Well, as much as a pokemon could laugh, anyway.

Meganium lowered his antennae in dejection, only for them to prop back up again. Who was Tytesterone to talk anyway? Sneakily putting one leg around his daughter and pulling her close, it was his turn to smirk. _At least I'm not a virgin._

It was the right or wrong thing to say. Typhlosion's laughter was cut off immediately, and the flames on his back shot out with burning rage. The typhlosion bared his sharpened teeth at the other male. _By the time I'm done with you your antennae will be right up your ass! _He promptly tackled the meganium to back up his rather imposing threats, which didn't seem to intimidate the grass type at all.

Before Kotone could turn around to face rival turned boyfriend, she felt the weight of his arm settle on her head. "Man, I knew you were short…" She could recognize that arrogance-laced voice anywhere. "But I didn't know you could _shrink_." The girl's expression of pleasant surprise quickly changed to one of annoyance. Kotone knew that a guy with abandonment issues wasn't likely to be the dream boyfriend from romance novels, but Silver could at least _try_ to be romantic. Upset, she turned to face the taller boy, opening her mouth to lecture him about not calling her to tell her he was returning to Johto, but before even a squeak left her lips, Silver quickly filled their gap with his own.

What did she expect though? Silver was never the kind to think things through; he said and did what he felt, provided his pride would let him do either.

He was feeling a lot more confident about the whole thing than he did a year ago, but there were still hints of a blush left on his cheeks and the urge to change the subject. Looking over Kotone (something not hard to do), he noticed that their pokemon were already literally at each other's throats. Silver internally groaned at his typhlosion. That pokemon brought him nothing but trouble with his arrogant and aggressive attitude. The redhead once again looked down at his rival's face, remembering the promise he made her before he left. Grabbing the bewildered girl's arm, Silver pulled her towards where their pokemon were, before kicking Typhlosion off Meganium. "Get a hold of yourself, you fat bastard!"

The pigtailed girl stared at Silver dumbfounded. A battle? Now? _Hmph_, the teenager crossed her arms, miffed. While she was always eager for a pokemon match, she kind of expected a bit more from the guy who confessed his love to her and disappeared for a year… Then again…

_"I will! And when I do… I'll marry you!"_

Well, implausible marriage proposal or not, Johto Champion Kotone wasn't going to go any easier on him. In fact, she felt even more determined to win. It's not like Silver could back up his promise now, anyway. Shaking the blush from her face, Kotone looked up confidently at her long time rival. Silver had a confident smile, different from the mean-spirited smirk she was used to. It was a welcome change.

* * *

Silver sat on the edge of the bed, watching Kotone talking on the phone from the corner of his eye. He hadn't been too happy to find out that the girl's long, droning phone calls hadn't been limited to him, but she had a habit of doing that with everybody. Still, at this point the redhead was too exhausted from the long week of tracking her down to think about it much, and after taking off his shoes Silver welcomed himself to lie down. Finally, the teenager heard the _click_ of the pokegear hanging up, and Kotone's weight on the edge of the bed. Silver blushed, and turned to give her his back; it had already been awkward enough to find out that there weren't any rooms left with two beds instead of one.

"You know…" The girl spoke softly, and since they weren't facing each other he could barely pick up what she was saying. "I didn't get around to telling you, but before you left I had a match with Red," Kotone sighed, remembering the mysterious trainer and the surreal battle which felt almost like a dream. Silver had snapped up quickly at the mention of the boy who had defeated his father many years ago, and looked at her in surprise. "I won, so…"

Silver smirked and relaxed again, dawning upon him what it all meant. Who would have known that the girl he had met two years ago, who had just received her very first pokemon, would go on to defeat Red?

"… Are you going to tell your dad about, you know, everything?" Kotone was now looking at her rival, trying to read his expression. She knew how Silver got whenever his father or team rocket were mentioned, but the two had talked about it a few times over the pokegear the last year, and Silver had promised to be less grouchy about the whole thing, provided she didn't try to force things out of him.

"Why would I?" The teenager snorted. "I don't care about him or what he thinks about me. He probably thinks I'm the same kind of asshole he is." Kotone laid down next to him and grabbed his hand, causing Silver to blush at the close proximity and the entire situation as it was. The pig tailed girl simply gave him one of her trademark, cheerful grins.

"I guess no wedding invitations for him, Champion?"

"Hmph..." Silver simply smirked back at his girlfriend/fiancée. "Although I admit, I _would_ like to see his face once he finds out."


End file.
